Friday, September 08, 2006

I Got To Meet President George W. Bush

The President of the United States came to Kansas City today and I got to meet him. I can't begin to tell you what a dream come true this was for me. I got the call 2 weeks ago that I was going to get to meet him and have my picture taken with him. I have been a cross between ecstatic and a nervous wreck ever since. There was the possibility that his plans could get changed or that I wouldn't pass the security check ;-) but otherwise it was supposed to happen. I thought of that line on the movie "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" where Sarah Jessica Parker says "Things are going too well for me, I bet I get hit by a bus." One of my first thoughts was what do you wear to meet the president?

When I got the call I was in shock. I had worked my tail off volunteering for his campaign in 2004 but I figured the time had passed for me to be able to meet him. I had seen that Bush was coming to a special $1,000 dinner for Talent but since I didn't have $1,000 I figured the point was moot. And then I got the call.

There were 12 of us volunteers who got to be on the tarmac waiting for Air Force One to arrive today. It was so awesome to see the motorcade pull in and then to see Air Force One land. I almost had tears in my eyes as I saw him come to the door and begin to descend down the steps.

I had 3 things I wanted to say to him and I was able to get them all said. I let him know what a huge honor it was to meet him, I told him I was praying for him and that I was proud of how he was protecting our country in the war on terror. When I told him I was praying for him he said it was working!!! My only regret was I was talking to him when they snapped the picture instead of me turning towards the camera. Although how appropriate is that, Little Miss Chatterbox is talking to the President while getting her picture taken :-)!

I didn't bring my camera with me because I wasn't sure we would be able take pictures. We weren't allowed to of the president since we were getting the White House pics but we could take them of Air Force One. So a sweet College Republican guy took a picture of me in front of Air Force One and said he would email it to me. So I will post both pics as soon as I have them. We also got to meet Karl Rove who hung out for a couple of minutes at the end.

It was funny because a friend of mine's husband works for an NBC affiliate and saw me on the raw footage. He called my friend right after seeing me and said, "By any chance (uhm) was Dionne on the tarmac today with (uhm)the President?" My friend reminded him that she had told him about it but he didn't realize that I was actually going to be on the tarmac.

I figure even my resident liberals James and Kirk will be happy for me despite their feelings about the president. And to any other libs nasty comments on this post about the President will not be tolerated, wait until another post to bash him in the comments, this is a happy post only :-).

The KC Star not surprisingly only published a short article about the President's visit in the B section of the paper: Bush to Visit KC today for Talent fundraiser. I would hope he would make the front page tomorrow since the press was at the tarmac in full force. Ofcourse that will give them an opportunity to talk about the protestors like the KC Star's blog did today.

Nevertheless it was an awesome day and irreplacable memories were made!!

UPDATE:Saturday the KC Star did put Bush on the front page along with 2 of the people that got to meet him. They also had a picture of the guy who was standing right next to me. The article was entitled: Bush Zips in for feel-good Visit. Ofcourse they had to highlight the protestors and show a picture of them also but overall it was a pretty comprehensive article about him being in KC.

Also, my friend's husband who works at NBC was able to get the footage of Bush getting off of Air Force One and greeting all of us. You can't see a lot but enough that it was great that I have it on DVD. You can see me talking to him and I did get to see that I actually did turn towards the camera so that made me feel better :-). My friend is trying to find a way for me to put the footage on You tube so I can post it on my blog.

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